A Scary Story
by Blueberry Ragamuffin
Summary: One summer night, the Potter children plus Teddy demand a scary story from Harry. "If you insist," said Harry. "But beware, this isn't a story of goblins or dragons; this is about your mother." One-shot.


Our chilling tale takes place on a pleasant summer's evening in Godric's Hollow. The small family (though they didn't _sound _small) sat on the porch of the backyard.

"Daddy, can you tell me a story?" Lily asked Harry.

"What type of story?"

"Hmmmmm..." she pondered, before jumping with her answer. "Tell me a scary story!"

Harry definitely had a great bulk of scary stories, but only a few were suitable for his six-year-old daughter. He searched for a story for a long while (a long while could be translated as a minute to Lily). She grew more impatient by the second.

"Dad, you're an Auror, you must have tons of scary stories," James said. When Lily asked for a scary story, James and Al had apparently abandoned their chess game (which mainly involved yelling about how the other was cheating, but still). Harry already had a story, but now even Teddy had dropped his book in anticipation.

"Well..." said Harry.

"C'mon, just tell the story already!" Teddy said as he jumped almost as much as Lily.

"If you insist," said Harry. "But beware, this isn't a story of goblins or dragons; this is about your mother."

"Excuse me, Mr. Potter?" Ginny said; even she had been sucked in.

"I believe he just said that you're scarier than dragons or goblins." Teddy added.

"Not you yourself, love," insisted Harry. "It's more of your temper."

Ginny appeared to be on the verge of replying, but closed her mouth all of a sudden and said, "Get on with your story, then."

"It was October of 1998," Harry began. "It was also a Sunday at the Burrow. All of the Weasley men —"

"Does that include you?" Al asked.

"Yes," Ginny answered.

"Anyway," continued Harry. "All of them were there, even your Uncle Charlie. Just like most Sundays now, we decided to play Quidditch. We were divided into two teams. I don't remember where everyone was. I do know for a fact that Ginny and I were on opposing teams."

"How is that frightening?" asked Teddy. "I've never seen her play like a pro at the Burrow."

"She never did," said Harry. "That is, unless you got her infamous temper going..."

"How could Mum have been mad at you?" Lily asked. "I've never seen her mad at you, or you mad at her."

"You see, your mother and I first dated when we were in Hogwarts. I broke it off—"

A collective gasp issued from the kids, including Teddy.

"How are you still alive?" James asked Harry. Highly amused, Harry turned to Ginny, who continued to wear a listening expression. Only he saw the tips of her lips slightly turn up.

"I broke it off because I was going off to hunt Voldemort. I didn't want to risk him knowing I had a girlfriend, so I made sure that I didn't have one. Back to the story. After the war finished, we still hadn't gotten back together. I thought that she needed time to mourn her brother's death. I suppose I gave her too much time. Why exactly were you angry with me?"

"I thought that you really broke up with me," Ginny said. "Plus, it didn't help that neither of us made a move to bring back the relationship."

"Right, what she just said. So I wasn't the luckiest bloke to be set across a Quidditch field from her at the time."

"How scary was it?" Al asked.

"Absolutely _terrifying_," Harry said. "We were both playing as seekers. I would get close to catching the snitch, and then I would feel Ginny bumping into me very roughly. There was one moment where I was quite scared, though. We were half an hour into the game. The snitch was hovering a few feet behind her. I had to ask myself, _get the snitch or risk being pushed off of your broom?_"

"Whoa there," Ginny said. "I would not have pushed you off of your broom."

Harry stared at her with a disbelieving face and was about to continue speaking when she smacked his arm.

"Don't give me that look! I wouldn't have knocked you off of your broom, no matter how angry I was with you."

"Probably not, but you weren't exactly friendly up there."

"Well, I thought that you dumped me."

"We get it; you two had a complicated love life, now please just tell us what happened." Teddy said rather impatiently.

"Okay. She noticed me looking in her direction, and I was probably looking very confused. Ginny must have thought that I was judging her or something, because she got really angry and started to zoom towards me. I flew away from her, trying to get to the snitch, but she kept following me. I dived down, forgetting about the game—"

Again, Harry's extremely dramatic children gasped. Their reactions were actually very funny, and Ginny even gave up her act of serious listening and laughed. The kids were all surprised, and it was difficult to tell if it was James or Teddy who felt the most shock.

"What do you mean, _you forgot the game_?" James asked, pronouncing every syllable with a passion.

"Quidditch is only a game," Ginny told him.

"Yeah, but _Harry _forgot about _Quidditch _while he was_ playing Quidditch_!" Teddy said in outrage. "How is that possible?"

"I'm only human, Ted. I'm sure you wouldn't be able to focus on Quidditch if your furious ex-girlfriend came flying towards you threateningly."

Seeing his godson's face contort in fear, Harry chuckled and decided to keep going in the story.

"I don't know what everyone else was doing, because none of them showed their Gryffindor courage when Ginny chased me. We ended up doing laps around the Burrow, and at the end neither of us knew what was really going on. Or rather, I knew that this wasn't about a Quidditch match. She landed on top of the roof and sat down. I landed and sat down beside her.

"I asked her, 'What are we doing, Ginny?' She said, 'We're wrecking the Weasley Quidditch match.'"

"_That's _the right attitude," James cheered.

"I told her that she knew what I meant, and she did," Harry continued. "So like any other stupid bloke, I asked her how her dating life was going."

"_Daddy!_" Lily reprimanded. "That's not what you were supposed to ask."

"What should he have asked?" Ginny asked her, as if she were teaching Lily the alphabet.

"He should've asked, 'How are you feeling?'"

"You're right, Lils. Your mother was also right when she practically pushed me off of the roof."

"Mum didn't do that," Al said with foolish certainty. Once she saw his mother's expression, he wasn't so certain anymore. "You didn't push Dad off of the roof, right?"

"He said _practically,_" explained Ginny._ "_And if he did fall, I would've levitated him back up."

"Back to the story," said Harry. "I obviously said the wrong thing. She even told me so: 'What do you mean, "Who're you dating?" Are you really so thick that you think it isn't at all insensitive to ask about my dating life?' I told her that I was just curious. Before you all interrupt me again, I know that I had just said another wrong thing. Ginny was _so _furious. I was scared to death; it was like I couldn't stop saying the exact wrong thing. I went safe and said, 'Sorry.'

"'Sorry for what?' she asked me. To sum it all up, I told her that I was sorry that I didn't write her or talk to her as much as I should have done after the war ended. It was silent for a while, and then she kissed me—"

"Eeew!" James, Al, and Lily said together.

"The response in the Quidditch pitch was very similar," Ginny said. "My git brothers screamed up things like 'Oi, get a room!'"

"What did you do?" Teddy asked.

"We ignored them," Ginny answered. "When we got down from the roof, I even saw them exchanging money."

"George and Charlie won," Harry said.

"You knew that they were betting on us?" she asked.

"I did after the fact. They were thanking me, saying 'Perfect timing, Harry.'"

"That wasn't a scary story!" Al said. "It was just a story about how Mum and Dad started dating."

"Trust me that was a scary story." Teddy said.

"Yeah, that was a terrifying Quidditch match." James said.


End file.
